The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1887-06-03
TEMPERANCE.
FROM A BUSINESS STANDPOINT

Y nOM - . O1ttNE0O . AND-POiN
The Revolution Going On in Respect to
the Rum Habit-Discriminatfons Against
Drinking Men-Facts for the Careful
Consideration of Young Men.
While there is no doubt that the sem
timent of the country is increasing rap
idly in favor of legislation TO cripple
and to crush the internal rum traffic,
its progress is no less marked in differ
ent fields, entirely distinct from that
occupied by the law and lawmakers.
In the social world, the drinking man
is still looked upon with more or less
tolerance, though the time is rapidly
coming when those who are confirmed
in the habit viii find the majority of all
respectable doors closed against them.
But the most important revolution is
that going on in what may be termed
the business world.
1t is a well-known fact that many of
the larger railways of the country will
not employ man addicted to the use
of rum, and with whom the cast-iron
rule obtains, which is most rigidly en-
forced, that any employee found under
the influence of liquor is at once dis
charged. Such a precaution is abso-
lutely necessary for the safety of life
and property. A switchman or bridge
tender, his brain stupefied by the fumes
OF alcoholic poison, is liable to send an
express train, loaded with its precious
human freight, down to death without
moments warning,
The same rule practically obtains in
many large manufacturing establish
ments of the country. 1t is certain
that the workman who is habituated to
the use of liquor can not do as much
work, nor that of 50 good quality, as
the man who never touches the poison;
his nerves are unstrung, his hand is
not steady, his judgment is poor. his
eye is not so correct 1t is but just
and natural that the employer should
desire the services of the best work.
men; and as he who is devotee of
rum is not so good as the sober man,
and as ne has that most fatal of all de-
fects, unreliability, it is no wonder that
the drinker is Disseminated against in
favor of the non-drinker.
Within few years the best and SAT-
est life-insurance companies have been
refusing all risks upon the lives of
those who drink habitually. The vic
tim of rum has far less expectation
of life at any given age than the sober
man. 1t is unfair to the policy-holders
who do not use liquor to admit men
who drink-unless, indeed, a much
higher premium is exacted. A sober
man at forty-fiye has the same expecta-
ton of life as drinking man at thirty.
So, as matter of simple justice, if a
risk on the life of the latter were ac-
cepted at all, he should pay the same
premium as a man who is insured at
the age of forty-fve. To make such a
distinction, in actual practice, would
be impossible; hence, the companies do
the next best thing-which is to refuse
risks upon drunkards.
This discrimination against drinking
men is shown most clearly in the
operations of the many secret societies
which have sprung up of late years,
whose chief purpose is mutual insurance
of the lives of their members. A man
who is known to be regular drinker
to have contracted the habit, whether
as yet he has become an actual drunk
ard or not-is debarred from member
ship, no matter how desirable an ac-
QUESTION he might be to the lodge in all
other respects. Each member in the
society has a direct money interest in
securing only the best class of risks; a
man who drinks is, not desirable.
Hence, when the ballot-box goes round,
those persons among the members who
are acquainted with the personal hab-
its of the candidate quietly drop black
balls therein, and he is excluded.
There is no public scandal the fact of
his being black-balled is lodge secret,
and pride and modification on the part
of the candidate prevents his ever MAX
ing the fact public.
Outside of the trades and mechanical
operations, among the vast class of
clerks and office employees, the same
rule is practically becoming more and
more enforced. The merchant wants
clear-headed men behind the counter
or desk. The great corporations re-
quire in their offices sober men of reg
ular habits. 1t is recognized as a safe
maxim that rum opens the door to all
kinds of vice and wrong-doing. The
man who drinks is liable to be a
spendsthrift While he is around town
of evenings, having what he denom-
mates "good time" (but which is in
reality very bad time, because it is
running his health and threatening his
life), he spends more money than he
would otherwise. He goes with a hive
ly crowd like himself, under the infiu-
ence of the collaborating effects of their
potation, and becomes reckless with
his purse. Extravagant habits are
NOly easy W dC1tilt stHu very udTu 10
break. II he can have such a good
time from the amount of money which
he spends on that occasion, he reasons
that he would have still better time
did he have more money. Theft or de-
falcation follows next in order; expos
ure and ruin are the inevitable results,
followed by fight or the prison. Sa-
gacious business men reason that it is
better to avoid these possible losses
and the known unreliability of drink
ing men, by securing sober employees in
the first place.
Right here it may be of interest to
state the fact that young men in cities,
holding positions of great trust, where
in it would be possible for them to
steal or embezzle, are often kept I'M
der strict surveillance of evenings by
their employers. There are in the
1arOeSt cities dofaotiveS Uyho find this